There’s no introduction or fanfare for cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley’s Tiny Desk set. They just start right in with a romping Beethoven piece. I don’t know these two, but the notes say the duo has a new album out called Shuffle.Play.Listen., in which music by Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla mingles with Cocteau Twins and Arcade Fire. There’s no contemporary music in this set, but it’s very cool nonetheless.

The Beethoven piece sounds alive and wild and very modern. The Glass piece is slow and beautiful The final piece is lively and playful (with hints of darkness). It introduced as reminding O’Riley of a scene in The Unbearable Lightness of Being when Daniel Day-Lewis gets a quickie.

It’s especially fun to watch how animated Haimovitz is. The set list:

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C – IV. Allegro vivace

Philip Glass/Foday Musa Suso: The Orchard

Leoš Janáček: Pohádka – II. Con moto

[READ: April 6, 2015] Five Dials 33 Part II

After several themed issues of Five Dials we get back to the ones that I really like–random things thrown together under a tenuous idea. It’s got some great authors and a surprising amount of large scale doodles–full page scribbles and some drawings that go from one page to the next (which works better online than in print). Some of the giant illustrations also are fun–they are of jokey images like a memory stick that states I have only memories. The art was done by JODY BARTON.

As with a previous issue there is a page of contributors and “The Unable to Contribute Page.” These are journalists unfairly imprisoned (see more at cpr.org). The Table of Contents is back, along with the FAQ: (more…)